J.B. Spins

Jazz, film, and improvised culture.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Cockneys vs. Zombies: Walking Dead on the East End

Finally,
someone has made the EastEnders episode
you always wanted to see. The title
pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Matthias Hoene’s Cockneys vs. Zombies (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.

The
zombie apocalypse comes at a rather opportune time for the McGuire
brothers. Their plan to hold up a bank
to save their crotchety grandfather’s old folks home has deteriorated into a
hostage crisis. Against her better
judgment, their cousin Katy came along to keep them out of trouble. Unfortunately, there is no way to compensate
for the wildly unstable Mental Mickey.
However, the zombie hordes quite obligingly clear out all the coppers
dug-in outside. Of course, this leads to
other problems. Now the McGuires and a handful
of hostages and accomplices must race to the Bow Bells Care Home to save
Grandpa and his cronies.

To
briefly recap, you have your zombies and you have your cockneys scrambling
about, shooting them in the head. All
clear? C vs. Z is the sort of film that probably started with the high
concept title, perhaps the result of a particularly inspiring pub crawl. However, unlike other horror movie mash-ups, Hoene
maintains a consistently high energy level and James Moran’s screenplay
delivers the right mix of gory laughs and meathead action.

But
wait there’s more, including Honor Blackman, a.k.a. Pussy Galore, blasting
zombies back to the Stone Age. In fact, it’s
an unusually accomplished cast, including the late, great Richard Briers
(recognizable from the Britcom The Good
Life and Branagh’s Shakespearean films) with a machine gun strapped to his
walker. Lovejoy’s Dudley Sutton also gets in on the act, but Alan Ford (a
Guy Ritchie regular) really steals the biscuit as ornery old Ray “Don’t Call Me
Grandpa” McGuire.

In
all fairness, Rasmus Hardiker and Harry Treadaway (the other Treadaway twin)
are solid enough as the bickering McGuire brothers, but they are somewhat
overshadowed by the colorful supporting cast and all the gleeful mayhem. Yet, Michelle Ryan (a former EastEnders cast member) makes a
considerably stronger impression, earning action props as sharp-shooting cousin
Katy.

Somehow the C
vs. Z team will probably find themselves sitting at home during the Oscar
and BAFTA award ceremonies. Nonetheless,
those attracted to Hoene’s premise will not be disappointed by his execution. Recommended for horror fans with a sense of
humor, Cockneys vs. Zombies opens
this Friday (8/2) in New York at the Cinema Village.

Fantasia ’13: The Dead Experiment

For
too long, only mad scientists in the Dr. Frankenstein tradition have been bold
enough to challenge death. Finally, two
respectably under-achieving grad students will strive to cure mortality. The initial signs are promising in Anthony
Dixon’s moody Canadian indie, The Dead
Experiment (clip
here), which
screens tomorrow during the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Woozily
staggering home, Chris looks like death warmed over—and well he should. According to his hysterical fiancée, Maddie, he
has been dead for two weeks. This is difficult news to accept. Yet, his reincarnated presence makes a
certain amount of sense. After being cut
from his post-grad program for general dodginess, he and his childhood friend
Jacob started developing a radical procedure to rejuvenate cells. It seems to have worked. However, as Chris and Jacob start documenting
his cure, complications arise.

By
genre standards, Experiment is
unusually idea-driven. There is some
really smart stuff in Dixon’s script’s and he blindsides viewers with one
massive game-changing twist.
Unfortunately, his cast really doesn’t do his concepts justice. At best, they are kind of-sort of okay. Jamie Abrams is the class of the field as the
ethically “pragmatic” Jacob. (That
leaves an obvious implication regarding the rest of the small ensemble.)

Indeed,
independent filmmaking is always an adventure.
Nonetheless, Experiment earns
points for its fresh take on the reanimation motif. What is typically grist for horror and gore,
Dixon essentially re-purposes into chamber science fiction. He and cinematographer Fraser Brown also maintain
the nocturnal atmosphere and mounting claustrophobia quite effectively.

While Experiment’s
shortcomings are what they are, it is exactly the sort of inventive
Canadian genre production Fantasia takes pride in supporting. Based on its merits, Dixon ought to have a
shot at bigger budgeted projects. An
intriguing indie, The Dead Experiment screens
tomorrow (8/1) at the J.A. De Seve Theatre as part of this year’s Fantasia
International Film Festival.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Europa Report: Found Footage, First Contact

This
will either be private space exploration’s finest moment or its greatest
tragedy. For the six intrepid astronauts
in question, it will either be first contact or bust in Sebastián Cordero’s Europa Report (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.

It
is in fact theoretically possible Europa’s subterranean oceans could sustain
microscopic life. With that fact in mind, a private foundation sends forth a
manned expedition to survey and report.
Unfortunately, communications were lost en route to Jupiter, until a
sudden transmission was received out of the blue. Of course, that will be our movie.

Initially,
it seems the Europa mission is merely beset by a series of technical problems
and human mistakes. Clearly, there is no
margin for error in the cold vacuum of space.
Yet, Cordero manages to subtly suggest there might be some other factor
at play. Despite damage to the ship and
fatalities to the crew, the survivors resolve to continue on, because mankind
may never get this far again.

Arguably,
most of Report is much more closely
akin to Apollo 13 than Ridley Scott’s
Alien and its subsequent imitators.
However, Philip Gelatt’s screenplay pushes in all its genre chips in the
jaw-dropping closing seconds that will resonate profoundly with readers of a
certain American author of the weird and fantastic.

Essentially,
Report operates on the premise that
all scientific pursuit is heroic, even when it is also strange and scary. Cordero and Gelatt seriously address themes
of courage and sacrifice, which adds surprising substance to the film, like a
Roddenberry script written amid a bout of depression. Cordero also nicely exploits the austere,
claustrophobic setting for maximum audience unease.

As
is frequently the case with found footage films, there is not a lot of
opportunity for old fashioned character development in Report. Nonetheless, the Europa
crew look and act like convincing astronauts.
HK movie-star Daniel Wu has a suitably authoritative presence as the
mission commander William Xu, while accomplished Romanian actress Anamaria
Marinca (probably best known for 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days) projects a natural sensitivity and perceptiveness as Rosa
Dasque, the co-pilot and archivist.
However, Dragon Tattoo’sMichael
Nyqvist lays on the Slavic accent with conspicuous thickness as engineer Andrei
Blok.

To its credit, Europa Report is visually far more impressive than one would
expect, given its budget constraints and found footage conceit. In fact, it is a surprisingly effective hybrid
of science fiction sub-genres.
Recommended for fans of hard science based SF and Wu, Europa Report opens this Friday (8/2) in
New York at the Cinema Village.

Robert Williams Does His Thing: Mr. Bitchin’

How
do you go from Hot Rod magazines and underground comix to the 2010 Whitney
Biennial? Essentially, Robert Williams just let the rest of the world catch up
with him. Frankly, his psychedelic cars
and naked ladies are probably more aesthetically conservative than the rest of
the Whitney event. Of course, Williams
was not there to see it. He had his own
show at Cal State Northridge, drawing a more Williams-esque crowd. Mary C. Reese surveys the artist’s life and
work in Robert Williams: Mr. Bitchin’(trailer here), which releases
today on DVD and VOD platforms.

Williams
did not look like much of a car guy when Ed “Big Daddy” Roth hired as the art
director for his magazine and t-shirt business, but he had a naturally affinity
for the company’s Rat Fink character.
Eventually, Williams’ work became too out there for Roth, but it was
perfect for ZAP Comix. Yet, Williams always considered himself a
painter first and foremost.

Williams
work has an almost baroque level of detail that is quite impressive. Nonetheless, his choice of subject matter often
generates controversy. In the past,
feminists have objected to his depictions of scantily clad (or outright naked)
women lounging on giant enchiladas. Guns
N’ Roses got an earful of such sentiments when they used his painting Appetite for Destruction on what became
their CD of the same name. While their
label initially moved Williams’ love-it-or-hate painting to the inside flap, the
band has since moved it back, without anyone seeming to notice.

While
Williams largely defined the look of the 1960’s (especially for those who held
to the notion that reading naughty comics was a political act in and of
itself), neither he nor Reese (and her battery of co-directors) get terribly
sidetracked by political discussions in Bitchin.’ Instead, we watch the artist’s old school canvas-stretching,
which is a rather telling moment. He
also is clearly devoted to his longtime wife Suzanne, who also happens to be
both an artist and a hotrod enthusiast, as well.

Who
would have thought the late, great Artie Shaw of “Begin the Beguine” fame was a
Williams collector, but he indeed turns up here, perfectly willing to discuss
the painter’s work in an extended interview segment. Reese also talks to other colleagues and
fans, such as Slash, Axel Rose, Deborah Harry, Don Ed Hardy, and Williams’
gallerist, Tony Shafrazi.

Even if the not-so-counter-culture-anymore is
not your cup of tea, it is fascinating to hear Williams dissect his large scale
work, such as his portrait of the high-living King Farouk, A Life of Delusion. Reese
never really challenges the artist to take stock of the unintended consequences
of the era that made his reputation, which is hardly unexpected, but still leaves
a conspicuous hole in the film. Still,
Reese gives the audience a good sense of Williams’ personality and oeuvre. Recommended for the artists’ fans, Robert Williams: Mr. Bitchin’ is now
available on Cinema Libre’s home viewing platforms and screens tonight (7/30)
at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Trueba’s The Artist and the Model

While
it is not exactly Casablanca, plenty of war refugees will find their way to
this French Pyrenees village. Some are
fleeing the German occupiers, but Mercè has escaped from one of Franco’s prison
camps on the other side of the border.
However, she has the perfect look for sculptor Marc Cros. His creative inspiration will flow once again as
they share a mutual respite from war and the other messy concerns of life in
Fernando Trueba’s The Artist and the
Model (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.

Despite
her bedraggled condition, Cros’s indulgent wife Léa recognizes Mercè as her
husband classic model-type. He too comes to agree after Madame Cros cleans and
feeds the young woman. Soon they are off
to his remote mountain studio, where she will earn her keep modeling for the
man who considers Matisse a close friend and colleague. He had essentially withdrawn from life, so
any spark she might kindle will be all to the good. After all, Cros is eighty years old and
decidedly world weary. Yet, as they
while away the hours in amid the natural beauty of his rustic lodge, she
re-awakens his passions as an artist and a man.

The
lulling effect of their temporary oasis is so seductive, viewers are apt to
lose sight of Trueba’s wartime setting.
Occasionally, events intrude on their idyllic interlude, such as Werner,
an upper class German officer and art historian, who has been writing the
definitive book on Cros. He is an
intriguing character Götz Otto never really has adequate time to explore.

Aside
from Claudia Cardinale’s wonderfully wise and mature appearance as Léa Cros, A & M is essentially a two-hander,
featuring two enormously photogenic co-leads.
It is impossible to stifle a sigh when gazing at Jean Rochfort’s deeply
creased face and profoundly sad eyes.
Conversely, Aida Folch’s Mercè looks as if she might have stepped out of
a Renoirpainting. Yet, she has a darker, more mature presence
than the coquettish Christa Théret in Gilles Bourdos’s Renoir, an obvious comparison film.

For Trueba, A
& M represents a triumph of mise-en-scène, worthy of an artist like
Cros. Indeed, Daniel Vilar’s
black-and-white cinematography is truly exquisite and every richly detailed
corner of Cros’s studio sets could be the subject of a rewarding still
life. Clearly, Trueba privileges
on-screen composition over narrative in his hothouse fable. It is definitely a slow burner, with the
emphasis on slow, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Lovely to look at, The Artist and the Model is recommended for mature viewers who
appreciate the manner Trueba intertwines the melancholy and the erotic. It opens this Friday (8/2) in New York at the
Paris Theatre.

Smash & Grab: On the Trail of the Pink Panthers

This
international ring of jewel thieves was brought to you by the bureaucrats at
the EU. It is a complicated story, but
Havana Marking has her sources. Using
animation to protect their anonymity, a handful of former members explain the
inner workings of their loosely structured organization in Marking’s Smash & Grab: the Story of the Pink
Panthers (trailer
here), which
opens this Wednesday in New York at Film Forum.

Marking
is careful not to unduly glamorize the high-end jewelry thieves that came to be
known as the Pink Panthers, in honor of the Blake Edwards franchise. Yes, they always avoided bloodshed on their
jobs, at least so far. Yet, they have
always been armed robbers, rushing into each score loaded for bear. They have never exactly been Robin Hoods
either, simply divvying up the proceeds from each job amongst themselves.

These
were professionals, who invested significant time and money to meticulously
plan each heist. Of course, they were
not just men. Every caper started with a
woman—a striking femme fatale, who would not look out of place trying on
expensive jewelry as she cased the joint.
Marking talks at length with one such scout. She goes by the name “Lela” for the purposes
of the film and like many Panthers, she hails from the former Yugoslavia.

The
shadowy group’s roots lie in the Balkans’ tragic war years. With Serb Socialist Party boss Slobodan
Milosevic stoking the fires of ethnic hatred, the EU responded by imposing a
punitive economic embargo on the entire Yugoslavia. Apparently, Brussels hoped the widespread
suffering would appeal to Milosevic’s heretofore unseen compassion, compelling him
to behave better. Instead, it gave rise
to an extensive black market, where future Pink Panthers learned the essentials
of illicit commerce.

Reportedly,
the Panthers largely consist (or consisted) of Serbians and Montenegrins, like “Mike,”
Marking’s star witness. However, she
presents of conscientiously balanced portrait of the various Balkan
nationalities involved. In fact, Milena Miletic,
a Serbian journalist and veteran of the anti-Milosevic protests, is clearly one
of Marking’s most sympathetic and authoritative talking heads.

Even
though Marking’s animated interviews with Mike and Lela look somewhat similar
to those roto-scoped Charles Schwab commercials, they still serve as an
effective counterpoint to the very real surveillance footage of the Panthers
getting down to business. Unlike most
true crime programming, there is nothing lurid or exploitative about Smash.
Nevertheless, Marking’s eye for ironic imagery adds a bit of dash to the
proceedings.

Leanly constructed and briskly paced, Marking’s filmgives viewers a vivid sense of the scope
and tick-tock professionalism of the Panthers’ operations. Fascinating and
often darkly comic, Smash is a good documentary
for viewers who do not ordinarily enjoy documentaries. Recommended for popular audiences, Smash opens this Wednesday (7/31) at New
York’s Film Forum.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

MITF ’13: The Past is Still Ahead

It
remains unclear whether the suicide of poet Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was
staged by the Soviet NKVD or merely the result of their constant threats and
intimidation. Frankly, it hardly matters—Stalin
and his obedient secret police are morally culpable, either way. Playwright Sophia Romma squarely faces the
truths and tragedies of Tsvetaeva’s life with a new production of The Past is Still Ahead, mounted as part
of the 2013 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York.

As
a small girl, Tsvetaeva met the Tsar at the opening of what would become the
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, founded by her father. Obviously, none of that would stand her in
good stead with the Soviet regime. Tsvetaeva
married Sergey Yakovlevich Efron, who became a prominent White Russian
Officer. He was also half-Jewish. Those were probably more than enough strikes
against Tsvetaeva to brand her a class enemy, but her epic verse honoring the
White resistance essentially closed the book on her. Yet, at Efron’s insistence, Tsvetaeva
returned to Russia, predictably enduring a dire existence of internal exile.

As
the play opens, Tsvetaeva has little illusions regarding her limited future. Increasingly
resigned to her fate, she is visited by visions from her past, including Efron,
her domineering mother Maria Meryn, and her lovers, the guileless Osip
Mandelstam and the scandalous lesbian poet Sophia Parnoc. Yet, it is the memory
of Rainer Maria Rilke, the soul mate she only knew through their correspondence,
that offers her the greatest comfort.

Although
Past portrays Tsvetaeva’s life in
impressionistic fragments, it incorporates decades of Soviet history, accurately
reflecting the chaos and oppression of the era.
The unequivocal depiction of the Party’s anti-Semitism is particularly
eye-opening. Likewise, Tsvetaeva’s
anguished memories of Moscow’s post-Revolutionary famine dramatically
illustrate the human costs of ideology.

While
little of Tsvetaeva’s actual verse is heard throughout Past, it nonetheless celebrates the power of language. This is most certainly true of her scenes
with Rilke, which tantalizingly imply how their shared literary sensibilities
might have led to greater fulfillment.
However, given the relatively short running time, it seems like Past devotes more than enough time to
Maria Meryn and her severe piano lessons.
In contrast, it seems strange her friend and champion Boris Pasternak
never enters her reveries, especially given his continuing literary prominence.

Regardless,
Alice Bahlke gives a remarkable performance as Tsvetaeva. A smart, sophisticated portrayal that also
conveys how brittle and profoundly damaged Tsvetaeva became, Bahlke makes it
impossible to hang any pat label on Tsvetaeva, like “victim” or “counter-revolutionary,”
which is clearly the whole point. Tosh
Marks is also quite engaging as Rilke, Mandelstam, and Efron, developing some
real stage chemistry with Bahlke in each role.

Having
debuted at Mayakovsky Academic Theater in Moscow with subsequent stagings
produced in New York, Geneva, and Montreal, Past
is now being presenting with its first all-American cast. They do well by Tsvetaeva’s story. An intelligent piece of theater, featuring
stand-out work from Bahlke and Marks, The
Past is Still Ahead concludes its MITF run tonight (7/28) at the Jewel Box
Theatre.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

AAIFF ’13: Harana

It
was a more innocent time, before texting and “Carlos Danger.” To woo fair ladies, young Filipino men would
sing harana love songs outside their homes, waking up most of the household in
the process. Sadly, the practice fell out of favor, but a young guitarist and
three old masters recreate the romantic sounds and spirit of old school
serenading in Benito Bautista’s Harana (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s Asian American International Film Festival.

Returning
for his father’s funeral after a long American sojourn, Florante Aguilar
suddenly found himself powerfully drawn to traditional forms of Filipino music,
especially the harana. Do not use the
word Latin to describe harana—it is a pure product of the Philippines. Nonetheless, it might sound somewhat akin to
the bossa or other Lartin-influenced styles to uncouth ears. Harana performance might not be quite as rare
these days as the documentary suggests.
After all, Filipino jazz singer Charmaine Clamor recorded a lovely set
of harana ballads just a few years ago.
Still, like a harana Alan Lomax, Aguilar starts off on a quest for real
deal, old school haranistas.

Eventually,
he found them in Felipe Alonzo, Celestino Aniel, and Romeo Bergunio. What begins as a series of informal jams,
blossoms Buena Vista Social Club style
into more formal performances, a proper tour, a recording session, and this very
same documentary. It was an opportunity
none of three gentlemen expected—that came just in time.

Viewers
will eventually pick-up a sense time might be short for at least one haranista,
but Bautista bends over backwards to avoid exploiting that fact for dramatic
impact. As a result, Harana has a rather slack narrative
structure, basically covering the “let’s get a band together” and “let’s put on
a show” bases.

Still,
the music is obviously the thing for Harana
and the ballads they sing are wonderfully lyrical and evocative. There is something especially touching about
the sight and sound of the three men of advanced years signing songs of young
love and eternal fidelity. By the way,
Aguilar certainly holds up his end. He
has loads of technique, but more importantly he has the perfect sensitivity to
accompany the haranistas.

Haranas are meant to be sung at night, so all
the resulting moonlit performances only enhance the film’s nostalgic vibe. It is all quite a pleasant trip, gently
propelled by the delicate but catchy rhythms of the harana. Recommended for those who appreciate a good
love song, Harana screens this coming
Wednesday (7/31) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of the 2013 AAIFF in
New York.

AAIFF ’13: The Trail from Xinjiang (short)

The
combination of an authoritarian government and a strict religion ought to make
Musa a scrupulously law-abiding citizen. Unfortunately, he is one of many
disenfranchised Uyghurs impressed into pickpocket gangs. Filmmaker Chen Dongnan captures the tragic
human stories of those derisively referred to as “Xinjiang thieves” in the
documentary short The Trail from Xinjiang
(trailer
here), which
screens during the Enduring Encounters programming
block at this year’s Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Like
many youths from Xinjiang, Musa was lured to the big city with false promises. Instead, he quickly found himself involuntarily
immersed in a world of petty thievery and drug dealing (by fellow Xinjiangnese). His friends Ali and Little Musa seem to have
a more natural aptitude for crime, but that is not exactly a blessing. Between the three of them, they will
experience the worst of nearly every imaginable urban pathology, including drug
addiction, AIDS, and violent crime—everything that does not exist in China
according to government propaganda.

Chen
set out to humanize the marginalized Uyghurs, so she largely maintains her
focus on Musa and his friends. Yet,
Jiaquan, the founder of the Anyang Anti-Pickpocket League, emerges as the film’s
most intriguing figure. Viewers might
initially see him as Anyang’s answer to George Zimmerman, patrolling the
streets with his twenty League volunteers.
However, as Jiaquan came to recognize Musa and his accomplices, he
started to sympathize with their exploitative circumstances. It is obviously a heavy commentary on Chinese
social services when the Xinjiang thieves’ vigilante-nemesis becomes the
closest thing they have to a social worker-advocate, but such is the state of
things. Frankly, his story seems ripe
for a full documentary follow-up, particularly in light of the film’s
concluding “where are they now” recap.

At thirty-six minutes, Trail has more tragedy and raw, cautionary depictions of vice than
scores of full length exposes. Itis a decidedly humane exercise in
muckraking, but it is still not for the squeamish. An unflinching film that puts viewers
squarely in Musa’s shoes, The Trail from
Xinjiang is highly recommended for China watchers when it screens this
coming Thursday (8/1) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of the 2013 AAIFF’s
Enduring Encounters short film
program.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Fantasia ’13: Bushido Man

Toramaru
is like the Anthony Bourdain of martial arts.
Before challenging a rival, he first eats what they eat. There is some wisdom to that approach, but
there is considerably more mayhem to be found in Takanori Tsujimoto’s Bushido Man (trailer here), which screens
tomorrow during the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Gensai,
the sensei of the Cosmic Way school of holistic martial arts, has sent his
number one student forth into the world to challenge seven specialized masters
and hopefully claim their ancient scrolls of secret wisdom. Things must have gone relatively well, since
Toramaru has returned to tell his tales to his appreciative teacher. Based on the details of his prep meal, Gensai
is able to guess the identity of the master to be challenged.

While
Bushido probably cost less to produce
than dinner for one at Nobu, action director Kensuke Sonomura stages some epic
mano-a-mano showdowns. Sonomura himself
starts things off briskly as Yuan Jian, the Chinese kung fu master and Kazuki
Tsujimoto makes quite a memorable Zatōichi surrogate as the blind swordsman
Muso. Yet, the honor-stoked adrenaline
reaches its purest, highest point when Masanori Mimoto appears as Eiji Mimoto,
the Yakuza dagger master. To his credit,
Tsujimoto also has a good sense of fair play, allowing Miki Mizuno to rack up
an impressive body count as the pragmatic arms-dealing femme fatale, M.

Bushido is all about
fighting, periodically taking timeout for some goofball humor. If you’re looking for narrative logic here,
just don’t. In one scene, Toramaru
strolls through the sunny streets of contemporary Tokyo, yet the next moment he
is trudging through the scarred wasteland of a post-apocalyptic Yokohama. It does really matter though. Everything in Bushido is there to facilitate the food and fighting.

Held together by Mitsuki Koga’s action cred and
straight man persona, Bushido Man delivers
the goods for martial arts-samurai-yakuza movie fans. It nicely demonstrates how a scrappy low
budget action production can overcome its budget constraints with energy and a
clever concept. Recommended for
established genre fans, it screens tomorrow (7/27) at the Imperial Theatre as
part of this year’s Fantasia Festival in Montreal.

Fantasia ’13: After School Midnighters

The
Scooby gang has nothing on these three little girls. They will absolutely terrorize the
supernatural beings haunting St. Claire’s Academy. Sugar & Spice massively trumps the things
that go bump in the night throughout Hitoshi Takekiyo’s animated feature After School Midnighters (trailer here), which screens tomorrow
as part of this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival.

While
touring their prospective new elementary school, Mako, Miko, and Mitsuko take a
detour into the soon to be dismantled science room, where they basically have
at the poor visible anatomy dummy. However,
after night falls, the uncanny dummy stalks the halls of St. Claire’s as the fearsome
Louis Thomas Jerome Kunstlijk. Rather put out by the treatment he received from the terrible trio, Kunstlijk
sends out a pack of gun-toting Mafioso rabbits to lure the girls back to St.
Claire’s. Of course, both he and the
bunnies will get more than they bargained for.

Despite
Kunstlijk’s efforts to scare the willies out of them, the innocent motor-mouthed
Mako and the entitled elitist Miko are too absorbed in their own little worlds
to fully appreciate the situation, whereas Mitsuko, the goth girl, is basically
down with it all. The girls are so
unfazed, Kunstlijk’s skeleton crony, “Goth,” tries to recruit them for a
supernatural scheme to save the science lab, sending them careening about St.
Claire’s like pinballs. Nevertheless, Kunstlijk
still has a hard time letting things go.

Midnighters is so off the
charts frenetic, it must be the product of a creative team consuming nothing but
Red Bulls and Pixie Stix. Sure, there is
plenty of “girl power” in Midnighters,
like the Power Puff Girls hopped up on amphetamines. Frankly, by computer animation standards,
Takekiyo’s characters have quite a bit of personality. Yet, it is hard to judge how appropriate the
film is for younger viewers. Many of the
supernatural elements are surprisingly sinister looking, but they only make the
three girls giggle with glee.

Chocked full of goofy humor and strange little
macabre details, there is never a quiet moment in Midnighters. You really have
to admire the sheer manic inspiration of Takekiyo and screenwriter Yōichi
Komori. Beyond breakneck, their hyper pacing
allows no time for logic to ever kick in. Recommended for anyone up for a cheerful
descent into bedlam, After School
Midnighters screens this Saturday (7/27) at the Imperial Theatre as the
2013 Fantasia Festival continues in Montreal.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

AAIFF ’13: Together

The
teenaged Xiao Yang is not exactly Cyrano de Bergerac. Nevertheless, he will do his best to recycle
both love letters and lovers. The course
of true love never runs smooth, but he will sometimes help it along in Hsu Chao-jen’s
multi-character rom-com, Together (trailer here), which screens
this Saturday during the 2013 Asian American International Film Festival.

Scooping
up his classmate’s discarded love letter, Xiao Yang is determined to put it to
good use. Perhaps his buddy Ma Chih-hao
can re-purpose it. Having just dumped
his girlfriend, Ma pines for the cute cashier working at their favorite bakery,
whose manager in turn nurses a crush on Xiao Yang’s older sister. Of course, she is already involved with a
rich jerk, who does not think much of Xiao Yang.

Yes,
this is the sort of film where viewers could use a flowchart to keep track of
who like whom. However, his parents’
relationship is easy to pick-up on. The magic has left the easy going Bin’s
marriage to more assertive Min-min.
Ironically, the print shop proprietor soon finds himself producing
wedding invitations as his own marriage takes a chilly turn. The free-spirited Lily has recently returned
to their Taipei neighborhood to marry Haru, the staid owner of the local
Japanese bookstore. Yet, the strangely
ambiguous chemistry between her and Bin is still there.

Despite
all the romantic confusion, the tone of Together
is much more bittersweet than cutesy.
In fact, for domestic audiences, it is downright nostalgic, given the
casting of Kenny Bee and Lee Lieh as Xiao Yang’s parents, who were amongst the
break-out co-stars of the classic melodrama The
Story of a Small Town. Of course, it is all headed towards a happy place,
but there are more surprises and less sentimentality in the third act than one
might expect.

Happily,
Huang Shao-yang’s Xiao Yang grows on viewers over time, as his character starts
using his brattiness for good rather than ill.
His presence somewhat suggests a young Taiwanese Leonardo DiCaprio,
except he is already considerably more manly (as is everyone else in the
cast). Bee remains charismatic in middle
age, nicely crooning the film’s signature love song. Supermodel-actress Sonia
Sui lights up the screen as Lily, while developing some reasonably believable
chemistry with the significantly older Bee.
Lee Lieh also does her best to punch-up Min-min, despite her somewhat problematic
scoldiness.

Indeed, Hsu definitely favors Bee’s Bin over the
rest of the large ensemble. Still, he invests the film with a forgiving vibe
that is rather endearing. His unhurried
pace might be a bit too languid for slavishly conventional viewers, but Hsu has
a good eye for composition and Blaire Ko’s slightly latin-ish score helps it all
go down quite smoothly. Recommended with
a fair degree of affection for those who enjoy slightly offbeat love stories
and family dramas, Together screens
this Saturday (7/27) at the New York Institute of Technology, as part of this
year’s AAIFF.

The Time Being: A Portrait of the Artist Struggling

It
is quite a coup for the de Young Museum to lend its walls to a film production,
but it was not to display the work of our POV struggling artist. Instead, the put-upon Daniel is merely
running another strange errand there for his potential benefactor in Nenad
Cicin-Sain’s The Time Being (trailer here), which opens
tomorrow in New York.

For
Daniel, the bad news is he only sold one piece during his last show. The good news is it was bought by wealthy
collector Warner Dax, who could become the source of many lucrative
commissions. At least, that is how his
gallerist spins it. Unfortunately,
meeting Dax proves to be a deflating experience.

Instead
of his patronage, Dax only offers a series of odd jobs requiring minimal
artistic talent, such as video-taping sunsets.
Daniel proceeds to upend his life catering to the strange collector, severely
fraying his relationship with his wife Olivia.
Yet, he perseveres in the hope it will lead to something on the
back-end.

Frankly,
Time Being is the sort of film that
might have been better realized as a short rather than a feature. Cicin-Sain
clearly has a good feel for the rarified gallery world and he stages some nifty
sequences of his artists at work on large scale canvases. In contrast, the scenes of domestic strife
quickly grow tiresome. Time and again,
Daniel seems to reassure his wife: “I promise things will get better—um, it was
Olivia, right?” The film’s big pivot
also feels like it comes prematurely, giving most of the third act an extended
endgame vibe.

Perhaps
the most distinctive aspect of Time Being
is the manner in which Cicin-Sain prominently incorporates the work of contemporary
artists into the film. Eric Zener
provides Daniel’s work and the exhibit he reluctantly visits at the de Young,
while Stephen Wright provides the dramatic paintings in Dax’s mansion, whose
significance will be revealed down the stretch.

Frank
Langella has the right imposing presence for Dax and he duly delivers in his
big climatic scene (of a spoilery nature).
Arguably, Wes Bentley keeps up with him relatively well as Daniel,
considering the flatness of his character.
Essentially a two-hander, Sarah Paulson makes the most of her small but consequential
supporting role.

There are intriguing moments in The Time Being, but the actual on-screen
drama is pretty middling stuff. Aspiring
artists and collectors will probably find a visit to the museum or gallery of
their choice appreciably more rewarding.
For committed Langella admirers, it opens tomorrow (7/26) in New York at
the Quad Cinema.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

AAIFF ’13: Innocent Blood

James
Park ought to know [in]famous undercover detectives never just retire,
especially when their biggest case holds some decidedly ugly secrets. The cop-turned-professor will have to revert
to his old ways when his young son is kidnapped by a mystery man with revenge on
his unhinged mind in DJ Holloway & Sun W. Kim’s Innocent Blood (trailer here), which screens this Saturday during the
2013 Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Park
knows crime, but with his limited academic credentials he can only land a
community college teaching gig. He plans
to go back for the right degrees, once his wife Susan finishes law school. It has been hard on their son Cody, who does
not see his mother nearly as much as they both would like. As a result, when her husband’s nemesis abducts
the young boy, she suffers from an acute attack of guilt.

Prohibited
from contacting the authorities, Park will have to figure out just what the kidnapper
wants on his own. It all seems to revolve
around Brad Lee, a human trafficker framed for a crime he technically did not exactly
commit. Park’s first clue will be the
trail of dead bodies he cannot explain to Carl Grierr and Jim Collins, the odd
couple detectives doggedly tailing him.

While
the harsh realities of human trafficking remain off-camera throughout Blood, it is an issue the filmmakers
feel strongly about. Like the T.O.M.
Film Festival co-founded by screenwriter-co-director Kim, Blood was envisioned
as a vehicle to raise funds and awareness.
It is well intentioned, but the on-screen business does not always
withstand the common sense test. (Park
really drops his son off on the very urban looking street around the corner
from his school, without watching to see if he makes it inside okay?)

Still,
Jun-seong Kim’s not quite retired James Kim is a genuinely compellingly
angst-ridden everyman. Alexandra Chun is
also entirely believable and sympathetic as the distraught mother. Although still a relatively young thesp,
Lance Lim makes a strong return appearance at AAIFF, following up his solid turn
in Il Cho’s accomplished short Jin
with his engaging work as Cody Park.

However,
for most genre fans, the main attraction in Blood
will be Doug Jones (the Silver Surfer, etc), somewhat playing against type
as Grierr, the acerbic but honest copper. He earns a fair number of sarcastic chuckles,
which are truly appreciated, considering the film’s grim and gritty tone. In contrast, C.S. Lee’s villain is rather
problematically bland.

Blood tackles some big
themes, like sacrifice and redemption, while exhibiting a wider social
conscience. However, Sun W. Kim’s
screenplay is not good about sharing information, while keeping its cast of
characters severely blinkered. Yet, it effectively
taps into some very real emotions that will keep most viewers fully vested in
the outcome.

Recommended for fans of Jones and dark crime
dramas, Innocent Blood screens Saturday
afternoon (7/26) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of this year’s AAIFF
(The festival officially starts tonight with Linsanity, Evan Jackson Leong’s entertaining documentary record of
Jeremy Lin’s dramatic rise to NBA stardom and concludes Saturday, August 3rd,
with Yang Yonghi’s Our Homeland, a
deeply compassionate portrait of a Japanese-North Korean family divided by
ideology.)

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Stranded: Christian Slater Maintains Protocol

In
space, no one can hear you getting chewed out. Frankly, this crew has it
coming. You might think scientists would be careful about contagions, but
evidently not. Perhaps the semi-competency of their military commander will
keep some of them alive in Roger Christian’s Stranded (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.

A
small four-person moon-base is a terrible place to be surprised by a meteor
shower. That much we can buy. Suffering damage to their power generators
and life support systems, Col. Gerard Brauchman’s crew hastens to make
repairs. While outside the station, Eva Cameron
notices strange glowing spores covering the meteors, so naturally she carries
one back inside, in gross violation of station protocol and basic common
sense. While she and Dr. Lance Krause
analyze it, one of the test tubes breaks in their centrifuge, so naturally she starts
digging around in there with her finger.
Before you know it, she is spectacularly pregnant with the alien demon
spawn—and then just as suddenly she is not.

Cameron
and Bruce Johns, the station engineer and resident drunk, know her alien
offspring is out there, wreaking havoc.
Yet, Brauchman and Krause dismiss their warnings, assuming they are just
suffering from CO² induced hallucinations.
Indeed, Stranded repeatedly
explains the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning with impressive thoroughness,
so at least it fulfills its public service mandate. Despite all the flak Brauchman takes for
sticking by the book, the film also suggests breaking protocol is a really bad
idea.

If
Stranded sounds like an Alien wannabe, take into consideration
the fact that Christian was nominated for an Academy Award for his art
direction on Ridley Scott’s beloved sci-fi horror classic, so maybe he has the
right to rip himself off. Christian had
previously won an Oscar as an art director on Star Wars (before it was known as A New Hope). His short film The Dollar bottom also won an Oscar and
his previous fantasy short Black Angel screened
before The Empire Strikes Back during
its initial run in the UK and Australia.
To temper your growing optimism, bear in mind Christian also directed
the notorious Battlefield Earth.

That
is some career, but with Stranded, he
lights out into clear-cut b-movie territory.
Christian makes a virtue of necessity, emphasizing the claustrophobia of
his limited set and the mounting tension within his small ensemble. To an extent, the quartet’s constant bickering
and back-biting gives the film a bit of character. Still, there is no getting around the
conspicuous carelessness of their actions and the cardboard dimensions of their
characterizations.

Frankly,
Christian Slater is not bad as Col. Brauchman, largely avoiding his typical tics
and shtick. Brendan Fehr comes across
reasonably credibly as Dr. Krause.
However, it is hard to believe a basket case like Michael Therriault’s Johns
could ever pass muster for a mission like this. As Cameron, Amy Matysio is
similarly stuck with a problematically character, solely distinguished by
head-scratching acts of stupidity.

If Stranded
were playing at an old school drive-in, it would be easy to recommend. On some level, dumb mayhem is always
diverting, but Manhattan movie ticket prices demand considerably more than
that. Those who might be interested solely because of Christian’s past work
should note his long presumably lost Black Angelhas been found and some sort of online distribution is expected in
the near future. That is probably the film to wait for. Basically a time killer
for woozy weekend viewing, Stranded opens
this Friday (7/26) in New York at the AMC Empire and will also be available on
itunes.

Moon Man: An Animated Fable that Shines

This
has to be the most endearing dystopia you will ever see. One can understand why
the Man in the Moon came down for a visit, but he will need a little getting
home in Stephan Schesch’s animated feature, Moon
Man (trailer
here), which
launches today on Tribeca Film’s VOD platforms.

The
President (presumably for life) has finally conquered the last little island on
Earth free of his control. Yet, it hardly seems to matter to one little girl
and her father. They are following their
regular routine—a drive-in movie, followed by burgers from a 1950’s style
drive-through. Then her father cruises
home with the top down while she curls up in the back seat with a blanket and
the loyal family pooch.

Tonight
though, something is amiss. The Moon Man
is not looking down at her as he should be.
Like other children around the world, she is usually reassured by the
sight of him up there. (However, grown-ups
somehow grow oblivious to him.) Getting
a bit bored, the Moon Man hitched a ride on a comet, but it was a one-way
ticket. To get back, he seeks the help
of Bunsen van der Dunkel, a Rip Van Winkle scientist who has slept through the
President’s rise to glory. As it
happens, the President also seeks the legendary inventor’s help developing a
rocket to facilitate his conquest of the moon. You get the idea.

First
of all, Moon Man is basically right
in line with what would be my approach to parenting, if only there were more
drive-in movie theaters. Based on Tomi
Ungerer’s children’s book, Schesch’s adaptation is unflaggingly sweet and
gentle, but one can pick up on the author’s sly sensibilities. Indeed, the constant lampooning of the
pompous President definitely follows in the tradition of Chaplin’s Great Dictator and subsequent satires.

Happily,
he has not really gotten down to oppressive business yet. This is a bright, vibrant world, filled with
flowers and vintage convertibles. In
fact, the hand-drawn animation is like a breath of fresh air compared to the
computer-generated-focus-grouped tent-poles released by the studios. It looks great and it perfectly suits the
secondary theme of adults learning to see the world as kids again.

Frankly,
the weakest link in Moon Man is the
Moon Man. The innocent Ziggy-looking
fellow does not have much personality, but the world around him compensates for
him. There are some clever bits involving the President and van der Dunkel and
the soundtrack is inspired, including Louis Armstrong’s rendition of “Moon
River.”

Moon
Man has a healthy supply of idealism with the right
subversive garnish. Schesch keeps the mood light and airy, even when the chips
are down, maintaining a pleasant medium-up-tempo pace. Good fun recommended for
eyes and ears of all ages, Moon Man is
now available on VOD from Tribeca Films.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Wasteland: a Working Class Caper

These
scruffy lads are nothing like Raffles the gentleman thief, but their intended
target is the real knuckle-dragger. A
recently released ex-con and his mates put a working class spin on the movie
caper in Rowan Athale’s crackerjack Wasteland
(trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.

Given
the film starts in media res with our protagonist in a police interrogation
room, it would seem the caper is not very successful. However, there will be several twists to the
tale the black-and-blue Harvey tells Detective Inspector West. Six weeks ago, he was released on
parole. Framed on drug charges by Steve
Roper, poor Harvey was a bone the local gang lord threw to the coppers to
distract them from his own narcotics business.
None too happy about it, Harvey plans to use information he overheard in
prison to get some payback and seed money for a new life abroad.

Ostensibly,
Roper has no connections to neighborhood social club, making the basement
office safe the ideal place to stash his illicit cash. Of course, Harvey cannot
take it alone. He will recruit three
friends: Dempsey the fast talker, Dodd the hard drinking goon, and Charlie the
momma’s boy welder. He makes a point of
not involving his ex-girl friend Nicola, but he still rekindles their
relationship in spite of his better judgment.

Although
Timothy Spall only appears as DI West in the wrap-around narrative device, his rumpled
gravitas lends the film instant credibility right from the start. In fact, Athale has assembled quite an
accomplished cast of recognizable but not necessarily famous faces. Despite his unprepossessing screen presence,
Luke Treadaway is suitably world weary as Harvey, whereas Iwan Rheon’s Dempsey is
a slyly roguish standout (even if some of his dialogue is hard for American viewers
to catch without subtitles). Again
projecting a sense of banal menace, Kill List’sNeil Maskell makes another beefy but intense villain as Roper,
looking quite at home in this gritty milieu.

As caper movies go, Wasteland is decidedly moody, but it is never slack. For a first time helmer, Athale ushers in
each reversal and revelation with an assured touch. Frankly, it turns into an out-and-out crowd-pleaser, while staying true to its working class roots. Thoroughly satisfying, Wasteland is highly recommended for caper fans and viewers of Ken
Loach’s more accessible films (like Angels’ Share). It opens this Friday (7/26)
in New York at the Cinema Village.

AAIFF ’13: Keye Luke & More Than Face in the Crowd (shorts)

Joe
Dante’s Gremlins has a strange
significance at this year’s Asian American International Film Festival. Two docu-shorts profile actors who
worked on the film. In a way, Keye Luke
and Jane Chung represent opposite sides of the same coin. Both did their best to navigate the studio
system at a time when Hollywood was not particularly hospitable to Asian
American talent. While Chung worked
steadily but anonymously in small roles, Luke became famous as Kato and Charlie
Chan’s Number One Son. Timothy Tau
allows Luke to speak for himself in his short docudrama, Keye Luke (trailer
here), which
screens as part of the Into the Penumbra short
film program at the 2013 AAIFF.

Reflecting
on his life, Luke addresses the audience in a manner akin to a stage play. As he reminisces, we see episodes of his
life, starting with his early home life, progressing through the double-edged Charlie
Chan films, his continuing sidekick gigging as Kato to the Green Hornet,
finally reaching his first starring role in the final Mr. Wong film. Mixing irony and realism, distinctly Anglo
actors portray Warner Oland and Sidney Toler, the Swede and the Scot who portrayed
Charlie Chan. However, Tau does not hate
on the Honolulu detective, acknowledging the franchise represented an
opportunity for Asian actors like Luke and his older brother Edwin, albeit a
flawed one.

Essentially,
Tau argues Luke did what he could with what the system would give him,
eventually becoming a widely respected and recognized character actor, whose
credits include quality films like Woody Allen’s Alice. It is quite a
reasonable, pragmatic perspective, under-pinning a film that revels in the
goofy idiosyncrasies of 1940’s b-movies and serials (the Secret Agent X-9 scene is particularly inspired). Keye
Luke also boasts a surprisingly big name cast by short film standards,
including ER’s Archie Kao and Bang Bang’sJessika Van, who all clearly
enjoy the retro tribute to the late great Luke.

Fame
always eluded filmmaker Sami Chan’s great aunt Jane Chung, but she still
enjoyed the business according to those who speak fondly of her in More Than a Face in the Crowd, also
screening as part of the Penumbra block. Chung had walk-on or small speaking parts on
probably more films and television shows than Michael Caine, but finding her in
the frame is usually a challenge. Supposedly,
she had a shouting match with Ricky Ricardo, but her family can never find it
during their I Love Lucy marathons.

Again,
Chan describes how Chung made lemonade out of lemons, finding extra work much
more entertaining and rewarding than the sort of part time jobs available to
most homemakers in the 1960’s. With
credits that include Chinatown, Funny
Girl, Flower Drum Song, and When Harry
Met Sally, she was a small part of many cinematic milestones.

Although
still alive during the production of Crowd,
the circumstances of old age prevented her from participating.It is too bad she could not enjoy a taste of
wider recognition during her lifetime, but Chan’s short doc is a fitting
tribute that also covers some under-examined cinema history with economy and
authority.Clocking in just under half
an hour, Crowd would be an
appropriate programming choice for PBS sometime down the road.For now, it is quite a shrewd selection for
AAIFF, especially considering the way it speaks in dialogue with Tau’s Keye Luke.Recommended for movie lovers, More Than a Face in the Crowd and Keye Luke screen this Thursday (7/25) at
the Anthology Film Archives during the 2013 AAIFF.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Fantasia ’13: The Burning Buddha Man

Where
was the Seaddattha when the Bamiyan valley Buddhas were destroyed Afghanistan?
Instead, the secret society is plundering Kyoto’s Buddha statues, supposedly
for their own protection. However, a
young girl quickly learns things are not as they seem in Ujicha’s mind-bending
animated feature, The Burning Buddha Man (trailer here), which screens
tomorrow as an official selection of the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Young
Beniko is suddenly alone in the world. Her
parents, or at least their torsos, disappeared while protecting their temple’s
Buddha statue from an uncanny intruder, while the grandmother she never really
knew remains in a mystical catatonic state.
Enju, a monk who claims to be a friend of the family, welcomes her into
his retreat. He explains to the baffled
girl how the Seaddattha have perfected matter transference to enable their
crime spree. He also introduces her to
his son Enji, a carver of Buddha statues, whose techniques might just prevent the
sort of fusion tragedies that befell her parents. Then things get really, really weird.

Rendered
through a mix of the “gekimation” style of paper cut-out animation and live
action (largely reserved for spurting vomit and blood), Burning has an absolutely bizarre look and vibe. Think of it as equal parts H.R. Giger, René
Laloux, and South Park. You have never seen a film like this,
particularly considering how seriously it treats its Buddhist subject matter,
notwithstanding the scatological bits. As Beniko raises her consciousness to battle
her powerful nemesis, she seeks not to kill but to reform his corrupted
soul. That is a noble sentiment, so good
luck with that.

In
Burning, the themes and visuals trump
bourgeoisie characterization and narrative cohesion. It is a massively archetypal head-trip. You would not consider it traditional anime
by any stretch, yet one can see the hints of shared old school elements when
the forces of good and evil fuse themselves into Golem like creatures for the
final cosmic battle.

Even though Burning
features a resilient young heroine and a respect for both religion and the
sanctity of life, it is not exactly appropriate for family viewing. Sure, an occasional head explodes, but the
film’s motifs and implications would just be too challenging for mortal parents
to explain. Recommended for fans of animation and cult cinema with a taste for the
profound and the eccentric, The Burning
Buddha Man screens this Monday (7/22) at the J.A. De Seve Theatre as part
of this year’s Fantasia Festival. Anyone
remotely near Montreal who is in anyway intrigued should see it when they
can. Those attending the fest should definitely
also check out Big Bad Wolves, Black Out,
Confession of Murder, Drug War, Ip Man: the Final Fight, It’s Me It’s Me, The Last Tycoon, The Rooftop, Thermae Romae, andWhen a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep. More to come.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Japan Cuts ’13: The Samurai that Night

Japan
gave the world one of the greatest revenge stories of all time. Sadly, Hollywood is reportedly returning the
favor by butchering Keanu’s 47 Ronin into
some kind of cheesy Frankenstein’s Monster.
It turns out vengeance-taking is trickier proposition than people
realize. A grieving husband understands
this only too well in Masaaki Akahori’s The
Samurai that Night (trailer
here), which
screens tonight as part of the 2013 Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.

Kenichi
Nakamura was always socially awkward, but the hit-and-run death of his wife Hisako
reduces him to a scant shell of a man.
Nearly five years later, Hiroshi Kijima, the violent petty thug
responsible for her death, has been released from jail. He is neither reformed nor remorseful, but he
is a little unnerved by the daily death threats he receives from Nakamura
promising to kill him on the fast approaching anniversary of Hisako’s
death. Yet, he still has the presence of
mind to use the poison pen letters to extort money from Nakamura’s earnest brother-in-law.

A
moodier, slower burner than even the original misunderstood Death Wish, Samurai hardly gives viewers any consolation whatsoever. Nakamura is a profoundly damaged soul, Kijima
is absolutely rotten to the core, and neither is likely to change. Still, agonizingly touching moments spring up
in the most surprising places, such as when the rough hewn employees of
Nakamura’s metal works express affection for their disintegrating boss.

Far
from a genre crowd-pleaser, Samurai vividly
depicts the ugly, awkward, and messy realities of violence. Viewers are not likely to forget the climatic
showdown, precisely because of the ways it undercuts expectations and payback genre
conventions.

As
the sweat-drenched tighty-whitey wearing Nakamura, Masato Sakai fearlessly put
himself out there. At times, he is
absolutely painful to watch, like a huge open sore picking itself apart
on-screen. In contrast, Takayuki Yamada’s
Kijima is a study in fiercely controlled aggression. Mercifully, Kinuwo Yamada
and Tsutomu Takahashi add a deeply humane dimension to the film as bystanders
sympathetic to Nakamura.

You have to admire the integrity of
writer-director Akahori’s vision. His
unforgiving depiction of human nature never gives his characters anyplace to
hide. It is a world of drab colors and humdrum
homes that looses nothing in the translation.
This is a writer’s film much more than a director’s film,
matter-of-factly presenting the angst and cruelty of his characters. Powerfully brought to life by an accomplished
cast, The Samurai that Night is
highly recommended for those not intimidated by everyday tragedy when it
screens tomorrow night (7/21), as this year’s Japan Cuts concludes at the Japan
Society.

J.B. Spins

About Me

J.B. (Joe Bendel) works in the book publishing industry, and also teaches jazz survey courses at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He has written jazz articles for publications which would be appalled by his political affiliation. He also coordinated instrument donations for displaced musicians on a volunteer basis for the Jazz Foundation of America during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Send e-mail to: jb.feedback "at" yahoo "dot" com.